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Metadata: 2004 Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) Loch Paible (Balranald Bog and Loch nam Feithean SSSI) intertidal sediment flats site condition monitoring survey
Abstract:
Loch Paible lies within the Balranald Bog and Loch nam Feithean SSSI on the west side of North Uist. The site includes terrestrial and freshwater features of national importance. The marine feature of conservation interest within the site is the sediment flats of Loch Paible. It is a mandatory requirement of SSSIs that monitoring of a site is carried out (site condition monitoring) to identify deterioration in the condition of the features for which the site has been established. The purpose of the current study was to initiate site condition monitoring of the intertidal sediment flats of Loch Paible. This was done to establish a baseline biological data set that would facilitate the assessment of the condition of the intertidal sediment flat habitats in the future and to allow a judgement to be formed on the current condition of these habitats. The approach taken to achieve these objectives was to establish a series of relocatable stations along transects that reflects the biological and environmental diversity of the sediment flats. Survey transects were worked as two survey events chosen to represent good geographical coverage and the likely spectrum of physiochemical conditions and biotopes. Fixed relocatable points were established, and recorded by dGPS with supporting photographic evidence for re-location, sketches and video. Transects followed constant bearings down the shore to the lowest level exposed at low tide (where possible taking advantage of conspicuous target features to aid reloaction). Zonation of dominant habitats were noted against distance down the tape.
Data holder:
NatureScot (HQ Inverness)
Click on the red button for resource contact details:
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| Other details | ||
| Internal code | Internally assigned metadata identifier | 11271 |
| Title | The title is used to provide a brief and precise description of the dataset such as 'Date', 'Originating organisation/programme', 'Location' and 'Type of survey'. All acronyms and abbreviations should be reproduced in full. | 2004 Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) Loch Paible (Balranald Bog and Loch nam Feithean SSSI) intertidal sediment flats site condition monitoring survey |
| File Identifier | The File Identifier is a code, preferably a GUID, that is globally unique and remains with the same metadata record even if the record is edited or transferred between portals or tools. | 1aa297bc0606a9d4d31e3bb958b434b2 |
| Resource Identifier | This is the code assigned by the data owner. | GB-SCT-SNH-ME-000093-MRSNH01100000007-PAIB |
| Resource type | The resource type will likely be a dataset but could also be a series (collection of datasets with a common specification) or a service. | dataset |
| Start date | This describes the date the resource starts. This may only be the year if month and day are not known | 2004-07-17 |
| End date | This describes the date the resource ends. This may only be the year if month and day are not known | 2004-07-19 |
| Spatial resolution | This describes the spatial resolution of the dataset or the spatial limitations of the service. | inapplicable |
| Frequency of updates | This describes the frequency with which the resource is modified or updated i.e. a monitoring programme that samples once per year has a frequency that is described as 'annually'. | notPlanned |
| Abstract | The abstract provides a clear and brief statement of the content of the resource. | Loch Paible lies within the Balranald Bog and Loch nam Feithean SSSI on the west side of North Uist. The site includes terrestrial and freshwater features of national importance. The marine feature of conservation interest within the site is the sediment flats of Loch Paible. It is a mandatory requirement of SSSIs that monitoring of a site is carried out (site condition monitoring) to identify deterioration in the condition of the features for which the site has been established. The purpose of the current study was to initiate site condition monitoring of the intertidal sediment flats of Loch Paible. This was done to establish a baseline biological data set that would facilitate the assessment of the condition of the intertidal sediment flat habitats in the future and to allow a judgement to be formed on the current condition of these habitats. The approach taken to achieve these objectives was to establish a series of relocatable stations along transects that reflects the biological and environmental diversity of the sediment flats. Survey transects were worked as two survey events chosen to represent good geographical coverage and the likely spectrum of physiochemical conditions and biotopes. Fixed relocatable points were established, and recorded by dGPS with supporting photographic evidence for re-location, sketches and video. Transects followed constant bearings down the shore to the lowest level exposed at low tide (where possible taking advantage of conspicuous target features to aid reloaction). Zonation of dominant habitats were noted against distance down the tape. |
| Lineage | Lineage includes the background information, history of the sources of data, data quality statements and methods. | Sample stations (6 in total) were selected along the transect to represent shore levels, substrates and possible biotopes. Station positions and zone transitions were recorded using dGPS and height below station marker determined with a level. And a comparison of datum to predicted tidal height was also levelled. Data collected at each station along the transect were entered into a station recording form in the field. At each station a note was taken of the approximate shore level, substrate type, moisture level, surface features, depth of anaerobic layer and the nature of the habitat. - Five replicate photo quadrats of the sediment surface were taken by photographing a haphazardly thrown 0.25m2 quadrat. Additional general views were photographed and digital video footage taken of the area around all the stations and along the transect. - At each station eight replicate core samples of 10.3 cm diameter and 20cm length were taken at random and pooled. At one station on each of the transects deemed to be of particular interest, four replicate pooled samples were taken. The sediment was sieved on a 1mm mesh sieve and sievings stored in 5% formalin for analysis of the macrobenthos. - A 3.4cm diameter core sample to a depth of 20cm was taken for grain size analysis. These were dry sieved at 0.5 phi intervals, following separation and measurement of the silt/ clay fraction. N.B. the PSA outputs do not seem to have been entered into Marine Recorder but are recorded as percentage values in the associated report. - Assessment of the abundance of macrobenthic infauna from core samples was supplemented by in situ assessment of abundance by recording estimates of the abundance of casts of Arenicola marina and of conspicuous animals found in digging over a total area of 1m2 to a depth of c.20cm.Where necessary, samples of these animals were preserved for laboratory identification The macrobenthos was sorted, identified and counted by Sue Hamilton (22 Bryce Crescent, Currie, Midlothian). Sediment samples for grain size analysis were dry sieved using a nest of sieves from â??4 to 4 phi at 0.5 phi intervals, following separation and measurement of the silt/clay fraction by puddling the sample of known weight, which had been soaked in sodium hexametaphosphate, through a 63 micron sieve. The sediment grain size parameters, median grain size and phi quartile deviation, were obtained by interpolation of the cumulative weight percentage curves. Beach profiles, based on surveyorsâ?? level measurements of intertidal height and range were graphed using Excel and subsequently annotated within Micrografx Designer to produce summaries of the physical and biological characteristics of the transects. Based on the physicochemical characteristics of the sediment and the characterisation of the fauna obtained from the cores and in situ observations, the transect stations, and the zones along the transect that they represented, were ascribed to biotopes using the 2003 habitat classification system (Connor et al. 2003). To aid this process all species data for all stations were transformed to the SACFOR scale of abundance. Similarity and potential grouping of stations was investigated by non-metric multidimensional scaling of the SACFOR abundances using Bray-Curtis similarity and the Primer statistical package (Primer-E Ltd, Plymouth). |
| Additional information | This describes relevant references to the data e.g. reports, articles, websites plus other useful information not captured elsewhere. | Moore, C.G., Mair, J.M. and Edwards, D.C.B. (2005). Site condition monitoring of the intertidal sediment flats of Loch Paible (Balranald Bog and Loch nam Feithean SSSI). Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report No. 101 (ROAME No. F02AA409a). |
| Related keywords | ||
| Keyword | General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Marine Environmental Data and Information Network |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | NDGO0005 | |
| Keyword title | data.gov.uk | |
| Keyword | General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Habitats and biotopes |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Habitat characterisation | |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Habitat extent | |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Macroalgae and seagrass taxonomy-related counts | |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Sediment grain size parameters | |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Zoobenthos taxonomic abundance | |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Zoobenthos taxonomy-related counts | |
| Geographical coverage | ||
| North | The northern-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | 57.5951 |
| East | The eastern-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | -7.4794 |
| South | The southern-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | 57.5823 |
| West | The western-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | -7.5027 |
| Regional sea | Scottish Continental Shelf | |
| Responsible organisations | ||
| Role | The point of contact is person or organisation with responsibility for the creation and maintenance of the metadata for the resource. | pointOfContact |
| Organisation name | NatureScot (HQ Inverness) | |
| data_supply@nature.scot | ||
| Role | The owner is the person or organisation that owns the resource. | owner |
| Organisation name | Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), Headquaters | |
| Individual name | Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) | |
| Position name | Data Manager | |
| Phone | 01463 725000 | |
| data_supply@nature.scot | ||
| Role | The custodian is the person or organisation that accepts responsibility for the resource and ensures appropriate care and maintenance. If a dataset has been lodged with a Data Archive Centre for maintenance then this organisation is be entered here. | custodian |
| Organisation name | NatureScot (HQ Inverness) | |
| Position name | NatureScot Data Manager | |
| data_supply@nature.scot | ||
| Role | The originator is the person or organisation who created, collected or produced the resource. | originator |
| Organisation name | Colin Moore | |
| Individual name | Colin Moore | |
| Position name | Consultant | |
| c.g.moore84@gmail.com | ||
| Role | The distributor is the person or organisation that distributes the resource. | distributor |
| Organisation name | Data Archive for Seabed Species and Habitats (DASSH) | |
| Individual name | Esther Hughes | |
| Position name | Data Manager | |
| Phone | 01752 633102 | |
| dassh.enquiries@mba.ac.uk | ||
| Dataset constraints | ||
| 20.1 Limitations on Public Access - Access constraints | This states `otherRestrictions` from ISO vocabulary RestrictionCode and is an INSPIRE/GEMINI requirement. | otherRestrictions |
| 20.2 Limitations on Public Access - Other constraints | This states any limitations on access to the data. Multiple occurences are allowed here. One entry shall be from the INSPIRE Metadata registry and the other free text should be part of the resource `Have specific limitations`. | Not for navigational use; SNH copyright data which is available for re-use under government licence terms: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ |
| 21.1 Conditions for Access and Use - Use constraints | This states `otherRestrictions` from ISO vocabulary RestrictionCode and is an INSPIRE/GEMINI requirement. | otherRestrictions |
| 21.2 Conditions for Access and Use - Other constraints | This states any constraints on use of the data. Multiple conditions can be recorded for different parts of the data resource. If no conditions apply, then `No condtions apply` is recorded. This uses free text. | no restrictions to public access |
| Available data formats | ||
| Data format | Format in which digital data can be provided for transfer | Database (Marine Recorder) |
| Format in which digital data can be provided for transfer | Documents (Published report) | |
| Format in which digital data can be provided for transfer | Geographic Information System (shapefile) | |
| Version info | ||
| Date of publication | The publication date of the resource or if previously unpublished the date that the resource was made publicly available via the MEDIN network. | 2008-07-02 |
| Harvest date | The date which this record has been (re)harvested from the provider. | 2026-04-19 |
| Metadata date | The date when the content of this metadata record was last updated. | 2025-06-03 |
| Metadata standard name | The name of the metadata standard used to create this metadata | MEDIN |
| Metadata standard version | The version of the MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard used to create the metadata record | 3.1.2 |